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Departmento de Programas Internacionales (DPI)

Costa Rica: San Jose

The DPI at Universidad Veritas has many options for students' linguistic, cultural, sports and ecological adventures.

The "Departmento de Programas Internacionales" (DPI) coordinates many study abroad programs. Our Spanish courses are based on the use of authentic and practical contexts in order to facilitate the acquisition of vocabulary and grammatical structures. The functional approach in our conversation program has lightened the intensive 4-hours/day schedule. Each Spanish module is 4 weeks long so each month you advance one level.

All of our courses have a maximum of 10 students per class. Students work within real and high frequency situations such as: restaurant and food necessities, making hotel reservations, formal and informal interviews, political and social issues, and other contexts. Interviews with native speakers of different ages and social status, are the basis of our students' familiarity with Costa Rican issues and culture.

Due to the cultural richness of an immersion context, the D.P.I. uses an integral or whole language approach, which also caters to the cultural, academic and professional background diversity of our students.

The department's continuous effort and research in making the program better focuses on obtaining a balance between the communicative and linguistic skills of the students. Although our basic levels emphasize communicative skill activities, we convey the importance of balancing communicative efficiency with linguistic knowledge.

Our faculty members are well-qualified linguists and multicultural education majors with a degree of Licenciatura or Masters. All levels work with a wide range of activities in order to develop reading comprehension, listening, writing and oral skills. The process approach to the acquisition of basic skills includes pre and postproduction activities. Students are coached in the analysis of linguistic and extra-linguistic elements during the reading and writing practices. In advanced levels we work more in depth on the writing process. Students polish stylistic details and analyze discursive techniques and thematic content of journals, research documents and literary texts.

The use of slides, music, telephone messages, radio programs, documentaries, movies and news broadcast, has helped the D.P.I. develop different audio-visual modules. These materials together with what we call "the street laboratory of San José City" assist us in teaching cultural and linguistic aspects.

Our evaluation system reinforces our program objectives. We integrate convergent (grammatical structures) and divergent (global use of language) techniques in our test procedure. All levels evaluate oral, listening, reading and writing proficiency through midterms and finals.

Universidad Veritas also has an academic agreement with a Research Institute for Coastal and Marine Resources (INRECOSMAR) which reinforces our courses in tropical ecology, marine biology and other environmental science courses.

We offer several types of Programs from Language only oriented programs two Special Interests Study Abroad Programs. There are different options in Language Programs length from monthly modules (80 hours contact) to 12-week semesters (mixture of Language and Elective courses), 4 week Summer Sessions and a 5-week Summer Session (Language module and one intensive 5 week elective).

Spanish courses are taught in intensive 4 week modules but during the 12 week semester, all elective courses such as: Humanities, Environmental Sciences, International Business, Dance and Literature are 12 week long and meet twice a week (4 hours/week). You can find a brief description of these courses in our web site:

www.uveritas.ac.cr

We also have 2 week Tropical Ecology Exploration programs, a 6 week archeology and anthropology program and we are now starting a Special Athlete Study Abroad Program which includes sports training for either Mountain Biker's, Marathon runners or Adventure Sports fans PLUS morning language studies for those who cant afford to stop training during their International experience.

We are fully accredited by the Ministry of Education of the Costa Rican Government as a 4 year university which is why we have successfully transferred credits to over 100 universities in the U.S. and Canada.

On the first day of classes we give a brief orientation on the country's cultural customs, the safety issues, university services and tourism options. Student should plan to be on Campus at 8:30 a.m. to take an obligatory placement exam.

PROGRAM FEES FOR 2001-2002 ACADEMIC YEAR:
Registration (intensive courses) $100.00
Registration for private tutor $25.00
Course tuition (4 week unit) $525.00
Course tuition (3 weeks/no credits) $430.00

Trimester: $1,460.00
Semester: $2,865.00
Private tutor/hr: $17.00
Airport pickup service; $ 20.00
E- mail service (account) $7.00

Special Courses: (taught in English) 12 week semester only HUMANITIES and ART $525.00 (includes museum and other entrance fees)

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES STUDIES $625.00 (includes field trips and day excursions)

GENERAL BUSINESS AND MANAGMENT COURSES $525.00

ETNIC STUDIES $525.00

PHILOSOPHY $525.00

PHOTOGRAPHY $625.00

Special Courses: (taught in Spanish) 12 week
COSTA RICAN AND LATINAMERICAN LITERATURE $525.00
PHILOSOPHY $525.00
HUMANITIES (CIVILIZATION) $525.00

Regular Departmental courses (quarter system only - 16 weeks)
(For advanced Spanish students only)
(Architecture, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Photography and Dance)

3 CREDIT COURSES: $150.00
4 CREDTI COURSES: $200.00

Official transcripts are issued upon request.

FAMILY HOME STAY: $460.00/month, per person: ($115/week)
Includes daily breakfast, dinner, laundry, private room and hot water. Most of our homes are walking distance from the university.


CALENDAR 2002

INTENSIVE 4 WEEK MODULES YEAR 2002

January 07- February 01 July 08- August 02
February 04- March 01 August 05- August 30
March 04- April 05 September 02- September 27
April 08- May 03 September 30- October 25
May 06- Mayo 31 October 28- November 22
June 03- June 28 November 25- December 20


Holy week 2002: March 25- March 31
Vacations: July 01-July 07

INTENSIVE SPANISH SEMESTERS and ELECTIVE COURSES
ELECTIVE COURSES CAN ONLY BE TAKEN DURING THE 12 WEEK SEMESTERS :

WINTER: January 07th - April 5th, 2002
SPRING: April 08nd - June 28th, 2002
FALL: September 30th - December 20th, 2002

SUMMER SESSIONS:
Summer I June 3th - June 28th , 2002
Summer II a July 8th - August 2nd, 2002
Summer II b July 8th - August 09th, 2002 (All Spanish courses offered plus: Introduction to Tropical Ecology, Selected readings in Latin American Literature, Literature and Film, Intercultural Communication and Intro.

To Eastern and Western Philosophy)
Summer III a August 5th - August 30th, 2002
Summer III b September 2nd - Sept. 27th, 2002

Each summer module can be taken independently of if you wish to enroll for the intensive Introduction to Tropical Ecology course; you must stay for five whole weeks.

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